Most fruit products targeting kids are misleading, claims study

Over half of the most heavily advertised children's food and
beverage products that clearly feature fruit on their packaging
contain no fruit at all, according to a study released last week.

The findings add more weight to a mounting campaign to prevent
misleading claims or associations on food packaging.

According to the Prevention Institute, a non profit center that
aims to improve public health, 51 percent of the products included
in its recent study were found not to contain any fruit, while a
further 16 percent contained "minimal"​ amounts of fruit
despite prominent fruit promotions of the packaging.

"The packages might lead a parent to believe (these products)
are a healthier option for their children, when many do not
actually deliver any of the nutritional benefits of whole
fruit,"​ wrote the authors of the study.

"Parents deserve - and public health imperatives require -
packaging that does not mislead consumers into thinking they are
making healthy choices,"​ they added.

For the purposes of the study, the Prevention Institute used the
list of brands included in the Kaiser Family Foundation's recent
report It's Child's Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing
of Food to Children​. This had identified almost 100 brands as
the top spending children's food advertisers on television.

Out of these, around a quarter were eliminated as they clearly
did not contain fruit, while just over 30 were also removed as they
made no allusions to fruit on their packaging. The remaining 37
products were the focus of the study.

These were divided into four categories based on the type of
fruit they contained. A total of ten products, or 27 percent, fell
into the 'fruit' category, which included products that contained
real fruit or fruit from concentrate. Brands in this category
included Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Kellogg's Strawberry Pop Tarts
and Quaker Chewy 90 calorie Baked Apple Granola Bars.

The second category contained '100% fruit juice', and contained
only two products: Capri Sun Grape Fruit Waves and Juicy Fruit.

The third group of products - 'minimal fruit juice' - included
drinks containing 2-10 percent fruit juice. Making up 16 percent of
the total, this category included items such as Sunny Delight Fruit
Drinks, Capri Sun Strawberry Juice Drink and Hi-C Strawberry Fruit
Drinks.

The final and largest 'no fruit' category consisted of more than
half of the products in the study, and included items with no
fruit, with only natural fruit flavors - which have no nutritional
value - or fruit juice concentrate - which is classifies as an
added sweetener, according to the study's authors.

According to the Prevention Institute, many of the foods in the
study - including those in the 'no fruit' category - had brightly
colored packages containing images of fruits or words related to
fruit, such as "fruit", "fruity"​ , or the name of fruits,
such as "strawberry"​ or "wild cherry"​ .

"These products were making an allusion rather than a claim,
which is why they are allowed under current regulatory guidelines.
But the packages imply to the average consumer that the products
are healthy, when they often are not,"​ lead author of the study
Leslie Mikkelsen told FoodNavigator-USA.com.

The report suggests several steps that need to be taken to
prevent misleading marketing: manufacturers must remove misleading
statements and images from their products, advertisements of highly
sweetened foods and beverages to children must be discontinued, and
existing products should be reformulated to increase fruit content
and reduce sweetener content.

The report also stresses the need for more stringent regulatory
guidelines that would prevent misleading claims or images on food
packs.

The number of products specifically targeting children has shot
up in recent years, as food and beverage firms attempt to
capitalize on a growing kids' purchasing power.

Indeed, an estimated $10bn per year is spent on food and
beverage marketing to children in the US, according to a report
issued last year by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). And the
majority of these products are high in sugar, salt, fat and
calories, and low in nutrients, said the report.

But the marketing opportunity does not come without its fair
share of costs. The growing body of goods aimed at kids has
coincided with a surge in childhood obesity rates. As a result,
manufacturers are increasingly finding themselves targeted as
contributors to the national epidemic through marketing unhealthy
products to children, or misleading parents into thinking products
are healthier than they actually are.

Such claims have resulted in a flurry of legal activity in
recent years, which shows no sign of letting up, and which suggests
that the industry must start to rethink certain marketing practices
if it is to avoid costly and time-consuming consequences in the
near future.